Resolve
by Heart of Ice Eyes of Fire
Summary: Second Leuitenant Oerba Yun Fang is on patrol when the Military base Etro is destroyed by an unknown enemy. Many soldiers and civilians are killed as Fang rushes back to base to see the full extent of the devastation. I do not own Final Fantasy.


It happened so fast. One minute, me and my squad were on patrol, everything was normal. And then Victor screamed. That's when hell broke loose.

Explosions. Screams. The stench of death. Burning flesh. Fire. Smoke. I was running, choking on ash, relentlessly eating tread as I sprinted back to base. It was the target. And my best friend was there. Lightning.

*HOIEOF*

My left side ached as I continuously pumped my legs forward, lungs consuming ash and oxygen alike. The left side of my helmet was missing, and my face was on fire. I ran the while way to base, all four miles, in just under half an hour. By the time I was at the ruins of Etro, I was drenched in sweet and heaving like I had been deprived of oxygen for years. I only rested for a second

I went quickly to Compound B's training room, and my heart froze in terror. It had collapsed. I was consumed by cold dread, and blazing fury. I let out a vengeful scream. I smacked myself to clear my sense. It had began to rain, quelling the raging inferno in the nearby forest and cooling my overheated body. My exosuit's coolant stabilizers must have been damaged in the explosion.

"Lightning!" I yelled into the rain, listening carefully. I heard something faintly, under the rubble. I ran there quickly. "Lightning!" Another muffled reply. "Keep talking!" I screamed back, beginning to shove away rubble, my motorized leg and arm joints sparking in protest. My hands were bleeding, my limbs numb, but I wasn't leaving Lightning. Not here. Not without telling her.

I finally saw her through the rubble. "Fang! I can't feel my leg! It's trapped under a cement pillar!" I cursed loudly, shoving away even more wreckage and debris. It paid off, as soon she was freed, save for her right leg. "Lightning..." She looked at me with her gorgeous blue eyes, face streaked with rain water and soot. "I want you to pull your leg out. I'm going to lift the pillar." She nodded, giving me a sad look. She knew the suits couldn't lift that. But I didn't care.

"Three..." I whispered, standing in front of the four-sided column.

"Two..." She whispered, wiping water from her eyes. A closer look would have revealed them as tears.

"One..." We whispered in unison. Lightning's eye slipped closed. I lifted with all that I was, but it didn't budge. "Fang," I stopped my struggling and glanced down at her. "Just... Leave me." She pleaded with her eyes. "No... Not like this." I whispered back harshly. I spun around, and gripped the pillar. I let out a roar as I strained myself, human body and exosuit alike, past the breaking point. I thought of her smile. Of her beautiful laughter. Her eyes. With one, final heave, I shoved the massive pillar away from us. I knelt next to her, body aching.

"Fang..." She whispered in wonder, cupping my burnt cheek gently. Her cool flesh against mine felt divine. I smiled at her. "We must go. The closest city to here is Gran Pulse." I said, picking her up bridal style. She winced a bit as I jostled her newly bound leg. "Fang, that's over sixty miles away. We'll never make it, you must leave me-" "No! I will not." I interrupted, already breaching the tree line as I headed toward Gran Pulse. My exosuit's miniframe provided the working part of my helm's visor directions to the city. I started out jogging, an easy four miles per hour, my exosuit's damaged frame and joints barely aiding me. I only had so much cell life left in it. 74 miles. 18.25 hours, if the suit held up.

*HOIEOF*

Lightning drifted off to sleep the first hour in, and I kept jogging for the next six hours, until she woke up. My body was numbly responding to orders, sweat seemingly forever covered in a thin film of sweat. I looked down at her sleepy blue eyes, hazy with pain and... Sadness?

And then suddenly, none of my suffering seemed to matter. My body's perpetual movement seemed to be renewed, and my helmet display showed I was pushing 5.53 mph now. So I pushed even harder.

*HOIEOF*

Four hours later, my breath came out in shallow, rapid pants. Rain water coated my entire body, even inside my suits. The whole left side of my body felt like it was burning to ash. Every time I slowed down, I just looked at Lightning's shivering form. And my resolve renewed. My suit died, and now it was just dead weight. Fifty extra pounds.

But I couldn't take it off. My arms remained securely around Lightning, and my pace slowed to a crawl. The rain was still pouring heavily, and night had fallen. Lightning had passed out again. I could vaguely make out Gran Pulse in the distance, a shining beacon of hope on this desolate night.

My legs cried out with every step, my lungs threatening to give out with every laboured breath I took. My wounds oozing blood, my vision hazy, arms numb. But... when I though of stopping, looking at her pallid, shivering form renewed my dwindling hope.

*HOIEOF*

Now pushing on twenty hours, I broke the tree line, and walked only a few steps, before my knees gave out. I gasped, in surprise, and went to stand, only to stumble again. On my knees... I looked at her. I smiled, and shook her awake gently, my heart warming as she opened hazy eyes to stare into my own green ones. "Lightning, I... need you to... Hang onto... My back..." I wheezed out, and seeing her nod, I swung her around gently.

I leaned forward, and began to crawl on my hands and knees. I looked up. Still some two hundred yards away.

Every step I took was like fresh death, every movement torture, every breath forced. All for her. All for Lightning. One hundred and a half. She needed medical attention fast, and the longer I took, the less chance she had of survival. One hundred and twenty.

I could see the gates, the guards and the cars. Unfortunately, the base had no such luxuries. Only aircraft, which had been destroyed. Ninety-nine.

I could her hear breathing in my ear, whispering encouragement as she held onto me like she was my anchor. And she was. Fifty.

My legs gave out completely, and I tried to move them, but they refused to cooperate. So I dragged myself, Foot by foot, muscles pulsing in the most horrid agony. Twenty. My arms gave out. "L-Lightning... I can't move. You... You need to go. Get to safety." I murmured hoarsely, breathing ragged, heartbeat wild. I was silently berating myself for not being strong enough. She got off of my back and knelt in front of me.

"I-I'll get help. Save us both." She whispered, caressing my cheek. In a burst of inhuman willpower, I pushed myself off the ground, sitting on the balls of my feet. I coughed violently, and smiled at her ruefully.

"Lightning... I... I love you... So much." I whispered at her, voice strangely level, and she chocked back a sob, tears mixing with the rain. "... Come back to me, yeah?" I asked, before falling over to the side, thankfully the uninjured one. I didn't see much, aside from her walking off briskly, dragging her broken limb behind her, her ruined fatigues glistening in the starlight. I rolled over, and stared at the sky.

I had failed her. I wasn't strong enough to take her all they way. So, so very close... A tear slid out of the corner of my eye, and I closed them. I vaguely heard shouting, and the tell-tale thump of rapid footfalls.

* * *

><p>AN: I would like to continue this, but it depends upon how well received it is.


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